ALAN FOGGON believes that it is almost criminal that Newcastle United have been allowed to rumble through 40 years of delivering nothing to their loyal fans.

Foggon travelled to Barcelona to bring back the Fairs Cup to Tyneside alongside his former skipper Bob Moncur and spoke fondly of his memories of being part of the 1969 team that beat Ujpest Dozsa to clinch the trophy over two legs.

Foggon, who now runs the Simonside Arms pub in South Shields, scored in the Fairs Cup final after coming on as sub in Budapest.

United had swept past Ujpest at St James’s in a 3-0 win before clinching a 3-2 triumph in Hungary, despite a sticky start that saw them two down at the break in the second leg, with Foggon netting the winner as a raw youngster.

Before that, Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon, Real Zaragoza, Victoria Setubal and Glasgow Rangers had all been dumped out of the competition.

Foggon, in a rare interview, told the Chronicle from Barcelona ahead of United’s biggest match in Premier League history: “That’s an indictment of the club.

“We should have picked something up since then – 40 years without winning something is just disgraceful, to be honest.

“Whether that is too strong a word, I don’t know.

“They’ve had opportunities to do it and never quite made it and come very close, but no cigar as they say.”

Working on South Tyneside as a landlord, proudly sporting his Fairs Cup winners medal behind the bar, and also working for a security firm, Foggon still finds it difficult to escape the world of Newcastle United, despite leaving the club in 1971.

He says: “You move on in life, being a footballer was great, but you move on.

“But Newcastle United is Newcastle the city.

“It’s what it’s all about, it’s the heartbeat of the city.

“If they do pretty well, we’re all smiling and lifted.

“Unfortunately we haven’t been lifted at all this season.”

And while Foggon would love to see Newcastle claw themselves to safety, he feels that the Magpies have to brace themselves for an almighty shock if Championship football is on the menu this time next week.

He said: “You have to live in the real world. Villa are in the top six for a reason and Newcastle are in the bottom three for a reason.

“It will take a big effort to get anything at Villa.

“You have to be realistic. We’ve won seven games all season and we’re asking them to go to the sixth-top team and win.

“It’s a tall order. I hope they do, but it will be difficult.

“It is hard to bounce back, but it depends on who owns the club and who is manager.

“Hopefully it will be Alan Shearer.”

Reflecting on his amazing experience to be invited to Barcelona to collect the Fairs Cup for a two-week loan for the 40- year celebrations, he said: “I’d only been once before (to the Nou Camp) and it was shut!

“So to see it was amazing.

“If you can’t play on their pitch in that stadium, you can’t play.

“It was immense, and it was great to go over and see it all and bring the Fairs Cup back.”